Due process, as well as democratic values, are threatened in Bangladesh by the actions of state agencies seemingly determined to subvert for political purposes the inquiry into the events surrounding the birth of our nation. The wanton arrest of MP Salauddin Quader Chowdhury demonstrates the extent of the attrition of due process in Bangladesh.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

A Chronology of Events

·This is a blow by blow description of the events as they occured. This will be updated as new details emerge.

Chronology of Events

Date: 14.12.2010

Time: 7:00pm

Event: Approximately 15 Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Detective Branch (DB) officers of the Police stormed into the residence of Mr. Salauddin Quader Chowdhury (An eminent member of the opposition party and current senior Member Parliament).

• Mr. Chowdhury was not at the residence at the time, and none of the family members were present.
• 4 members of the household staff were present at the time.
• The officers did not present any papers or warrant to enter the premises.
• When they asked the staff the whereabouts of Mr. Chowdhury, they informed the officers that none of the family members were in the house.
• The officers locked the front gates of the house from within and proceeded to storm into the house and started conducting a search.
• The officers told the household staff to unlock all the doors in the house.
• When the staff said they did not have the keys to all the bedrooms and cupboards in the house, the officers began assaulting the staff.
• The officers broke the locks and windows of all the rooms and also broke into all the cupboards, after which they proceeded to ransack the rooms.
• During this time, they unplugged the lines of the surveillance cameras and removed the hard-drive that stores the surveillance footage.
• During time, members of the media arrived at the front gate and started reporting the scene. The media tried to enter the premises but officers guarding the gates resisted and also refused to give any statement or explanation for their presence.
• At this time, members of the family were also notified by the media.
• The family sent lawyers to the residence. The lawyers representing the Chowdhury family demanded to enter the house and were also refused entry.
• After approximately one hour of waiting outside the gates of the residence, the lawyers forced their way into the house at which time the media also followed.
• Within a matter of minutes every member of the RAB and DB officers hurried down the stairs and out of the premises in front of the media with their cameras rolling. The officers had their faces covered their faces so as not to be identified by the media.
• When interviewed by the media, different members of the government had differing explanations for the event. One government official said that the officers were there in search of a murder suspect but no details were offered.
• The media has footage of the events of the evening along with the interviews. They have aired the footage in the news programs.
• After the event, none of the members of the family stayed in the house fearing their safety.

Date: 16.12.2010

Time: 1.30am

Event: Arrest and torture of Mr. Salauddin Quader Chowdhury

• Approximately 30 members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Detective Branch (DB) Police, and DGFI (Directorate-General Foreign Intelligence) entered an apartment in the residential area of Banani where Mr. Salauddin Quader Chowdhury was staying as a result of the events of the 14th.
• The officers broke down the front door as well as the bedroom door where Mr. Chowdhury was sleeping.
• They refused to allow Mr. Chowdhury to change his clothes and proceeded to tie him up.
• They tortured Mr. Chowdhury for the next 6 hours, despite his heart condition (he has suffered 3 heart attacks and has 5 cardiac stents in his heart).
• The extent of the torture included the following:
o Repeated beating to the face and head with boots while pinning him down by standing on his chest.
o Repeatedly hitting the heels of his foot with a bat until the bones in one heel broke.
o Slitting the right side of his stomach several times with a blade.
o Pulling on his toenails with tools until some of them ripped out.
o Tying him to a chair and taking turns in kicking his entire body with boots and beating with bats
o Pouring cold water into his nose while holding his mouth shut, inducing vomit.
o Repeated hitting of the elbows with a bat.
o Holding his mouth and nose shut until he almost fainted, and repeating it several times.
• Finally when he was in critical condition, he was taken to BangabandhuMedicalHospital at 7am.
• The doctors revived him and recommended that he be admitted immediately and be moved to an intensive care unit.
• The officers refused and took him to the Detective Branch (DB) Headquarters at approximately 6am. Some members of the media had already arrived at the hospital and took footage of him in bloodstained clothes and unable to stand on his own.
• After arriving at the DB Headquarters, the officers ordered Mr. Chowdhury to wash all the blood off his body and change his bloodstained clothes. He refused to do so. The officers handed over Mr. Chowdhury to the Detective Branch police in the DBHQ and left.
• At approximately 8am some of the same officers came back to the DBHQ with some more officers who introduced themselves as members of RAB and DGFI. They carried some of Mr. Chowdhury’s clothes with them. They ordered the Detective Branch policemen that they be left alone with Mr. Chowdhury.
• At this time, they proceeded to beat Mr. Chowdhury for an hour by tying him down and administering punches and kicks all over his body. They ripped off his bloodstained clothes and ordered him to wash his body.
• Finding Mr. Chowdhury to be unable to stand, they carried him to the washroom and hosed him down. Two officers assisted him in putting on fresh clothes after which they tied him down again and began punching and kicking him for a second time, this time for one and a half hours.
• Finding it necessary to change his clothes once again due to bloodstains on his new clothes, they carried him to the washroom again, hosed him down again and helped him put on fresh clothes.
• After this they made him sit on the ground while they continued their verbal abuse. He asked for water, which they gave him after approximately one hour. While Mr. Chowdhury’s ears stopped bleeding, the officers had trouble stopping the bleeding from his nose. One officer kept wiping his nose intermittently until the bleeding stopped.
• Around midday the officers noticed that Mr. Chowdhury started hyperventilating. The officers asked the Detective Branch police to go out onto the street outside the DBHQ where the Mr. Chowdhury’s family, well wishers, lawyers and the media were waiting to see him. The DB police asked the family if Mr. Chowdhury takes any medication or not so that they could administer it.
• The family refused to give any medication to the DB police because (i) neither them or their lawyers were allowed any access to or any information regarding the state of Mr. Chowdhury and (ii) because it is the legal duty and liability of the officers and the police to provide him with the proper medical attention since he was under their custody, and because (iii) the family was not notified about his detention and learned about it through the media.
• During this time the family members heard about the extent of his torture through sources at the hospital who had witnessed the marks on his body.
• Until approximately 1pm it was unknown as to why and under which charges Mr. Chowdhury was arrested. The media learnt that his name was to be added to 6-month-old murder charge that was previously unrelated to him and that he would be shown arrested under that charge.
• At 1pm, Mr. Chowdhury’s family members and the members of BNP lead by the party’s secretary general Mr. Khandker Delawar Hossain called an emergency press conference at the party’s headquarters in order to notify the general public about his illegal detention without a warrant, the extent of his torture and the falsified case that he was being charged with. Mr. Chowdhury’s daughter also appealed to the authorities to stop the inhumane torture that was going on and to follow due process and a give him a fair trial.
• At 2pm the officers put a shawl over Mr. Chowdhury’s body in order to cover his wounds and put him in a van to transport him. They also tried to make him wear a helmet in order to cover his swollen face and bloody nose, as the media was outside and was waiting to capture footage of this brutality.
• As the van came out, the media captured pictures and video of his bloody nose and and swollen face and he was visibly weakened and could not even sit up properly.
• When Mr. Chowdhury reached the courthouse he was carried out of the van by police officers, as he was unable to walk on his own. This footage was aired by all television stations.
• At coming out of the van the police tried to forcefully put a helmet on him but he refused vehemently and the police were unable to put it on. This was also captured on tape and aired on TV.
• The police proceeded to lift him out of the van and held him up by his shoulders and arms, because it was evident that he could not walk.
• He was wincing in pain as he was hauled up the stairs and attempted to lift his arm at the crowd.
• The courtrooms were filled with lawyers and immediate family members, no media was allowed in.
• Mr. Chowdhury after 4 flights of stairs was evidently exhausted and unable to walk all together and 4 police men then proceeded to lift him and put him on the floor of the cage that is used to confine the accused in the courtroom.
• The family and lawyers saw his nose bleeding, and his bandaged toes.
• The lawyers and family asked about his injuries to which he tried to answer.
• The court ordered a chair to be given to him to sit on, but when the chair was passed to the policemen guarding the cage, despite the court directive refused.
• He asked for water, the family requested as well to the police to give him water, the police refused to.
• Then lawyers started shouting out to the policeman that they were going against the court direction.
• The police finally after a good 15 minutes of him sitting on the floor with his back rested against the wall, allowed a chair in and helped him up from the floor.
• The police men also got direction from the court to provide him water and then allowed family to give him water.
• His shirt was partially open and his bruises could be seen, he showed his heels that they were broken and he could not stand up.
• The govt. lawyers stated their case, as printed in all the papers, that they were arresting Mr. Chowdhury on the basis of suspicion that he was behind the car burning and death of Farukh during the hartal.
• The govt. lawyers also request 10 days of remand for interrogation.
• The defendants lawyer stated their case, they said that there is no mention of Mr Salauddin Q. Chowdhury in the 200 names stated in the FIR (first information report) of this case.
• The defense also mentioned the torture that he went through, and that the court should take it in to consideration the defendant’s injuries that have been inflicted by the police and RAB even before remand has been petitioned or granted.
• The lawyers mentioned SQC has 5 cardiac stents in his heart undergoing surgery after a heart attack in 2004 and his life would in danger if remand was granted.
• The defense requested that Mr. Chowdhury be allowed to speak for himself about what the police have done to him in the last 14 hours.
• He was allowed by the judge 2 minutes to describe the torture.
• The defendant wrapped his fingers around the cage rods to lift himself up so the judge could see him.
• He spoke briefly while he could stand.
• The newspapers have quoted what he said to the court.
• He said that it doesn’t matter how many days of remand the court orders because he has endured torture equal to a 100 days of remand inflicted by the DGFI and RAB the last 14 hours.
• The court then proceeded to grant the govt. 5 days of remand
• The police then lifted him up again and took him through the crowd of supporters and lawyers and hundreds of policemen.
• The crowd inside the court premises erupted as the policemen manhandled SQC into the van.
• Witnesses within earshot of the walkie-talkie carried by the police in charge, blared out orders to kick him and drag him into the car instead of helping him walk.
• The police carrying him obeyed the order by lifting him by his neck, pictures of which have been carried by newspapers.
• Eye witnesses have seen Mr. Chowdhury then was shoved into the van and when he tried to sit on a stool was pushed to the ground and assaulted, forcing him to lie on the ground. The pictures of this have been printed in the newspapers also.
• They proceeded to beat him by standing in his chest and repeatedly kicking him till they reached the DB HQ.
• Till date Salauddin Quader Chowdhury has not been permitted to speak or see his lawyers, while undergoing the remand.

Date: 22nd December, 2010

Event: Mr. Chowdhury was brought to court but not produced at the CMM court on the 22nd, illegally being kept in remand for an extra day. The family gets to meet him for 30 minutes by court order, under full supervision of police. S. Q. Chowdhury shows his injuries and blood soaked tissue to the family.

·Mr. Chowdhury brought to the CMM court premises on the 22nd of December after 6 days.
·One whole day of ‘illegal’ remand. The court had ordered him to be brought on the 21st, but the govt. fails to bring him at the end of the 5 days.
· SQC was not produced in front of the judge/court, he was kept in the holding cell in the building beside the courthouse, through out the court session.
· In the proceedings the judge did not ask why he was not produced, nor direct for him to be present in court.
· The court approves the appeal from the family to see him for 30 minutes while in the courts holding cell.
· The family of six meet Mr. Chowdhury in presence of 15-18 policemen and DB.
· The member of parliament, Mr. Chowdhury, was seated on the floor, with his back against a wall of the court cell.· When he heard his family call out to him to tried to stand up, but failed.· He was wearing a shawl over his shirt. · Two policemen unlocked and entered the cell and helped him get up.· His body showed signs of obvious suffering.· He could not stand up straight. · He put out his hand as the family put their arms through the bars to help him stand. · He stood briefly, and with every ounce of energy in him shouted out that he knew the people torturing him, what they were doing and why they were doing it. · The family urged him to tell them what he had been through, and how they had tortured him before they had to leave.· He spoke as if it would be the last time he would see his family.· His voice was loud, but it was obvious he was struggling and in great pain.· He said that that the men who tortured him had openly told him ‘We cut Chowdhury Alam’s gutts out and threw him in the river, we will do the same with you and no one will have anything to say’.· The family begged him to show his wounds.· He hesitated at first and obeyed as the family vehemently persisted. · He took out blood soaked tissues from under his clothes.· Mrs Chowdhury put it away so none of the guards would see him give it.· Took parts of his clothes off to show his raw bloody areas.· Places he was repeatedly electrocuted were still bleeding.· He said he had been electrocuted for 5 days, continuously every 2 hours.· He was injected once with something, when they it was titanus shot, and two other times they tried to inject him he refused to let them. · His heels were broken.· Part of his chest and stomach on the right side of his body was bandaged.· The bandages were covering the razor cuts they made on him.· His elbows were swollen and black and blue, and the webs between his fingers were bleeding.· The lower parts of his body especially his thighs and legs were predominantly black from the beating.· Mr. Chowdhury could not stand any longer and the policeman lowered him down. · After a few personal words with the family, the family was escorted out.· Mrs. Chowdhury showed the blood soaked tissues to media and reporters outside.· The police van, apparently carrying the MP, came out. · Greeted by hundreds of supporters, mostly lawyers shouting out his name.· Taken to Central Metropolitan Jail in Dhaka· 23rd morning he was transferred to Narayanganj jail, located in the outskirts of DhakaDate: 23.12.10

Event:Narayanganj jail

Mr. Chowdhury was moved to Narayanganj Jail

Date:24.12.10

Event: Family allowed to meet SQC for 15 minutes

· His immediate family and two lawyers were permitted to visit for 15 minutes.

· Mr. Chowdhury walked in with the help of a guard, limping and needed help to sit down, his hands were shaking.

· He told family he had not eaten in 9 days.

· He was afraid that his food might be poisoned, so had only been eating biscuits from sealed packets given to him.

· He ate what the family brought with them.

· Multiple prison officials and civil clothes police were present in the room, supervising the visit

Date: 25.12.10

Event: Refused access to lawyers and family members

· Family and his lawyer Barrister Fakhrul go to visit but prison officials refused to even receive the application to visit.

Date: 27.12.10

Event: Refused access to lawyers

· Barrister Fakhrul and other lawyers attempt to visit, but are refused.

Date: 30.12.10

Event: War Crimes Tribunal Hearing

· Mr. Chowdhury was brought to tribunal hearing.

· He was limping, and needed help to walk up the stairs.

· He stood up in court told the court that he was tortured in custody, but the judge said since it has no relevance in the tribunal.

· He was not allowed to speak for himself, and said only lawyers were permitted to speak. Mr. Chowdhury said that his lawyers had not been allowed to meet him so he had no way of communicating and directing them, and he was not allowed to even sign any wakalatnamas.

· He asked for lawyers to be allowed to meet him in jail as well as his family.

· The honorable judge only directed the jail to have wakalatnama signed in jail.

· The lawyers asked the court to give immediate medical attention to Mr. Chowdhury in light of the torture that he has endured in custody.

· The court was given the pictures of Mr. Chowdhury printed in newspapers and of the video of him when he had been brought to BSMMU (also known as PG Hospital) in the middle of the torture on the 16th of December.

· The judge was furious when he saw the bloody pictures.

· SQC’s lawyers told the court that he is a 63 year old heart patient who had suffered 3 heart attacks, and has 5 cardiac stent in his heart.

· The lawyers told the court that his cardiac condition had obviously taken a turn for the worse with trauma of the torture and that he needed to be admitted in a heart facility as soon as possible.

· The judge threw the pictures at the Deputy Attorney General, and shouted “Where is human rights?! So this is the way you treat men in your custody?! Where is the Attorney General?! Tell him to come right now!”

· The Deputy Attorney said that the AG was already on his way over, but that it was already the end of the court day, so he wanted to ask to continue the hearing the next day.

· The Judge told the DA to make sure that Attorney General is present at the hearing the next day.

Date: 03.01.11

Event: High Court Order to admit SQC to a private medical facility or sent abroad on parole.

· Attorney General was present and argued that Mr. Chowdhury was healthy and that there was no reason to think that just because he is a heart patient he will suffer another attack.

· The Judge told him that his pictures show otherwise.

· The Judge ordered that Mr. Chowdhury be admitted to Ibrahim Cardiac Center within two days, be allowed to be sent on parole abroad for treatment if advised by his doctors.

· The Attorney General came out of the court room and told the media that they would go to the appellate division.

· He further said “If we give SQC medical, then we’ll have to give everyone medical treatment. His family wants to put him in a private hospital and then send his medical reports abroad, and that will tarnish the country’s image abroad”.

· There were three jail officials in uniform and a man in civil dress in the room.

· The man in civil clothes was taping the conversation and when he was discovered doing so, the lawyers and Mr. Chowdhury shouted that it was against jail code to be within earshot of the prisoner and visitors.

· He left without giving his identification and the jail authorities said that they didn’t know who he was.

· Mr. Chowdhury said that he had written a number of letters to the Speaker and to the Tribunal, but the jail had refused to send any letters.

· He still was not eating any jail food, and was surviving on biscuits and fruits family sent or he got bought with his PC money.

Date: 13.01.11

Event: Family meets him and finds his health conditions deteriorate due to lack of medical treatment.

· The family including one of his brother and sister visited him.

· He walked in limping but without anyone to help him walk this time.

· His toes were swollen and dark because they were getting infected in the cold weather.

· He said that they were caused by the needles that had been pushed into his toes under the nails.

· He could not wear any socks or shoes in the bitter cold because he was afraid that the infection would get worse.

· He told family that because his knees were battered, the cold made it even more painful to walk.

· He said he had asked for medical treatment and for the jailer to approve his medical petition, but the jailor refused.

Event: SQC loses sensation on left side of body, due to stroke/heart attack, taken to BSMMU hospital emergency, refuses medical treatment by same doctors who supervised his torture. SQC admits to family that jail had not given him his privileges as an MP, and was kept in solitary confinement.

· The family including one of his sister and brother visited, but the jail authorities said he was unwell and could not meet.

· Jail authorities said they were taking him to a hospital in Dhaka, but would not mention which one.

· The family saw the ambulance coming out carrying him and spoke to him for an a few seconds before he was rushed off.

· He said he would not go to BSMMU hospital and did not want treatment in a govt. facility.

· He was deceived and taken to BSMMU.

· Once there in the emergency room, he did not let the BSMMU doctors to touch him.

· He told the family that he had fallen sick on Thursday night (3rd) and informed the jailor, and fallen down while praying at fazr prayer.

· He had lost sensation on the left side of his body, and could not move his leg or arm, and could just barely move his fingers, but not even make a fist.

· He said he had tingling sensation all the way up to his face.

· Doctor did not come to see him till 4pm Friday (4th) afternoon, at which point the doctor said he could not help him and would have to be hospitalized.

· The IG did not approve of his treatment till Saturday morning (5th) when the family had come to meet him.

· Mr. Chowdhury said he did not want to be admitted at BSMMU because the govt. doctors supervised his torture and did not treat him when he was brought to the hospital in the middle of the torture.

· He said he could not and would not trust them with his life.

· He also told the family that he had not been given his privileges in the jail and was kept in solitary confinement in a building where regular convicts were also living.

· He said he had not mentioned this earlier as he did not want the family to feel bad and helpless.

· The family recognized a few people from the policeman present in the emergency room, including an OC who was there in civil clothes

· They were people who were present with Mr. Chowdhury in the videos of the 16th of December - the day Mr. Chowdhury was tortured and brought to the BSMMU hospital.

· The Man in civil clothes denied it when the family told him they recognized him.

· Later admitted that he had been there, but only to escort SQC to the DB headquarters, that he had no hand in the torture.

· At that point Mr. Chowdhury asked to either be sent to a private facility or sent back to jail as he was safer there.

· The medical board met and sent him back to jail untreated.

Date: 06.02.11

Event: Medical Writ filed and family refused visits

· The medical writ was filed again

· Court orders another 6 week stay on the high court order to give Mr. Chowdhury medical care in a private facility.

· The family tried to visit him at Kashimpur but was refused.

· The reason being that the family had seen him at the hospital the day before.

· The family urged that it had not been an official visit as it was not at the prison but at the hospital in the emergency room, and the family wanted to verify his health condition.

· The prison officials refused and said he was fine.

Date: 07.02.11

Event: Lawyers refused access as Mr. Chowdhury was unwell.

· SQC’s lawyers and including daughter in law Daniah (also a lawyer) went to meet

· The jail had informed family that he was not eating, and only eating dry food sent from the family.

· The lawyers including daughter in law Daniah (also a lawyer) went to see him with a wheel chair, in case the jailer would make an excuse that he could not walk over to meet them again.

· The jailor received the wheel chair with thanks, and said he would send it.

· When Mr. Chowdhury arrived after 20-30 minutes, he was carried in by his shoulders by two guards, and was visible very weak and unable to walk on his own.

· When his daughter in law asked why he had not used the wheel chair, he said that he had not been given any.

· The lawyers immediately confronted the guards why they had not sent it in to him, to which they said they did not know it was available.

· The jailor said he was perfectly healthy and that if the doctor had told him to send it he would have.

· Since he was able to walk there was no point in creating a scene.

· Mr. Chowdhury became very upset since it was obvious that this was all designed to cause him more pain and humiliation, he shouted that he would not tolerate this sort of abuse, that he tolerates enough on his own and did not want his lawyers and family see him go through such degrading behavior.

· He told the jailor “I have borne all your demeaning actions, not giving me my privileges, medical treatment, and keeping me in solitary confinement for last 4 weeks, but I will not let my family members go through this.”

· He told the lawyers and daughter in law, to leave and forbid them to come to visit. He told the guards to help him up and left with them.

· The lawyers and Daniah continued to have a heated discussion as the jailor said that he was given whatever treatment that was necessary for him and that he does not think he needs a wheelchair.

· He said that he didn’t have permission to send in a wheelchair sent by the family and if needed a government wheelchair would be used.

· When he was asked why then a ‘government wheelchair’ was not sent to him, he mentioned that he had orders from his superiors not to provide Mr. Chowdhury with a wheelchair.

Date: 24.02.11

Event: Medical writ hearing at Appellate Court to have Mr. Salauddin Quader Chowdhury sent to a private cardiac hospital for treatment of his deteriorating heart condition

· The Appellate Division did not grant any relief, instead sent the case back to the High Court Division to issue a final rule on the matter.

Date: 26.02.11

Event: After 21 days Mr. Chowdhury allowed to meet his lawyer and son

· Two lawyers and Mr. Chowdhury’s youngest son finally are allowed to meet him.

· This time the prison officials brought him over in the prison medical van from his cell.

· He told his son that no female members of his family should come to visit as the jail authorities were very disrespectful and was capable of any offensive behavior.

· He looked weak, and appeared to have lost a lot of weight

· He confirmed reports in the newspaper that he had not been eating any food, and had been eating only dry food that he thought safe.